Trip To Kauai - Day 2

We woke up early the next morning. We couldn't help it! It wasn't because we were so excited, it was because there are chickens and roosters EVERYWHERE on Kauai! When hurricane Inikki struck Kauai back in 1992, it liberated the chicken population and now they run wild. They are in restaurants, roads, beaches and even Wal-Mart!

So after admiring the sunrise from our room, we grabbed our snorkeling gear and headed out to the other end of the road on the North Shore of Kauai - home of several fabulous snorkeling destinations. We brought one suitcase with us and it was mostly filled with our snorkeling gear! Our first stop was Ke'e Beach.

Ke'e Beach is a protected cove separated from the pounding ocean by a nearby reef. It was already full of people when we arrived and put on our gear. Naturally, there were also chickens! I'll spare you the endless array of underwater pictures at this point in deference to a few later, but the swimming was wonderful.

From the Ke'e Beach, we drove down the road and stopped in for a look at some water-filled caves. The water was pretty dirty, so we passed on swimming through them and made our way down the road a little to swim at Tunnels Beach. We arrived just as a car pulled out of a very close parking space, so we were just steps away from the sand! With our wetsuits still on, we grabbed our fins and headed to the water.

Tunnels beach is so named because of underwater cliffs and tunnels just off a reef that abuts the beach. Swimming out over the reef, we suddenly passed over an underwater cliff into very deep water. I tried swimming down to the depths, but it was too deep for me to get to the bottom. So we swam along the cliff observing the fish and coral in the crystal clear water. I occasionally dove into cracks and valleys looking for life under the rocks. As I swam along over a large gap in the reef, something large and dark moved beneath me - it was a monk seal!

Now, its very rare to spot a Monk seal in the first place. They are endangered and tend to frequent unpopulated places. The only other time we've even seen one was when Jessica hiked 2.5 miles to the Western tip of Oahu... It's incredible to swim with one in the wild - much less take underwater pictures of the event or even take a movie! Here is my evidence that we swam with a Monk seal!!!

Again, I won't bore you with the many underwater pictures we took...I have lots and lots! After swimming at Tunnels Beach, we drove over to Queen's Bath - a large pool carved out of a lava shelf just above the ocean waves. After a short hike (still in our wetsuits), we found the pool and took up a little enclosed swimming. Now this would've been interesting but unremarkable were it not for the other people who fed the fish!

While DeAnna and I swam, people tossed dog food near us and the fish swarmed to the surface! Here is a short clip of how close and active the entrapped fish were!



After Queen's Bath, I'd had enough of spending the day in a wet wetsuit, so we took them off and drove to a few beaches to see if they were worth more snorkeling. The last beach we saw was called "Secret Beach" because it is a drive down a dirt road and a hike to the beach. It is so secret that it used to be an impromptu nude beach (though we only saw two fully-clothed people)! We walked along the beach to a series of lava shelves to see the pools of Mokolea where the ocean surges up and down in a tidal pool cut int he lava shelf.

After spending some time at the secluded point goofing around and watching waves, we returned to the car and set our sights for highly rated BBQ in Kapaa. I've told many people that I haven't had GOOD BBQ since I'd been in Hawaii. It was so nice to get GOOD BBQ! We turned in early so we could get an early start on the final day of our Kauai visit. This time, we used ear plugs to ward-off the ever-present roosters crowing!